Advertisers in the light of communication ideas: Assessment and approval

Abstract

Creativity plays a core role in advertising communication, but do advertisers consider it as an essential factor when judging and approving communicative ideas presented by an agency? The main aim of this article is to identify the elements that, from the advertisers’ point of view, are key in their assessment and approval process regarding communicative ideas; detecting any elements that can work for or against a favourable assessment for a proposal from an advertiser and checking whether creativity is one of them. To do this, an exploratory research project was proposed with a qualitative focus, involving in-depth interviews with ten advertisers operating on the Spanish market. Using content analysis and Grounded Theory, the findings demonstrate that the agency’s proposal was not assessed in isolation but that, beyond the mere idea, there is a range of intangible elements with enormous influence over the advertisers’ final decision. Creativity is a characteristic that is taken for granted, it is assimilated into originality and it is used as a medium to achieve certain business objectives. In turn, the article focus will provide a vision of the advertiser that is traditionally ignored in advertising literature: they are not only broadcasters but also the target audience of the commercial communication.